Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner (1980)

Harpercollins, hardcover, 96 pages

Based on a Rocky Mountain legend, Stone Fox tells the story of Little Willy, who lives with his grandfather in Wyoming. When Grandfather falls ill, he is no longer able to work the farm, which is in danger of foreclosure. Little Willy is determined to win the National Dogsled Race—the prize money would save the farm and his grandfather. But he isn’t the only one who desperately wants to win. Willy and his brave dog Searchlight must face off against experienced racers, including a Native American man named Stone Fox, who has never lost a race. (source)

They were both thinking of people who’d disappeared and were never found again, and of how it was to leave behind the people you loved, even if the life you wanted wasn’t the one they could give you. (p.33)

Lulu is back with a brand-new refrain, and it’s time to earn some cash. How else can she buy the very special thing that she is ALWAYS and FOREVER going to want?
After some (maybe) failed attempts, Lulu decides on the perfect profitable job: dog walking. But Brutus, Pookie, and Cordelia are not interested in behaving, and the maddeningly helpful neighborhood goody-goody, Fleischman, has Lulu wanting to stomp his sneakers—and worse.
How will Lulu deal with three infuriating dogs and the even more infuriating Fleischman? And what is this SUPERSPECIAL thing that Lulu is so fiercely determined to buy? I really don’t feel like discussing that right now.
Once again, picture book legends Judith Viorst and Lane Smith bring us the loudest, rudest girl to ever shove her way into our hearts.(synopsis from back cover)